


Into the Empty

by hannah_smash



Category: Supernatural
Genre: BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Canonical Character Death, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss, Dean Winchester Loves Castiel, Episode Fix-It: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Jack Kline as God, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Season/Series 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27686765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannah_smash/pseuds/hannah_smash
Summary: This is the journey that Jack takes at the end of Inherit the Earth throughout Carry On, and how he's a better God than Chuck could ever hope to be.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 83





	Into the Empty

**Author's Note:**

> This was in part inspired by the meme of Castiel with a trumpet, you know the one ;)

Jack was still getting used to the new level of power that was settling into his bones, thrumming under his skin. He knew _everything_ now and it was hard to rationalise what was him and what had come from inheriting Chuck’s memories along with his immense celestial power. Having Amara in his head was helping to harmonise what was going and keeping him level. But looking at Sam and Dean, he was grateful for the increase in his empathy. He _understood_ them both with startling clarity now, without them even having to open their mouths. He knew, even as Sam asked, that he wasn’t expecting Jack to go with them back to the bunker. Sam was intelligent enough to have worked out that taking all of Chuck’s power had made him the new superpower and he had work to do. Dean was certain he would come with them, making promises to celebrate a job well done, but Jack could see past that. As he explained why he wouldn’t be going with them, what he was now, he could see Sam’s acceptance but what was going on with Dean’s aura was interesting. Jack could see the guilt as stark red lines around his soul, he _wanted_ to look after Jack as penance? Because he felt like he’d let Cas down, to make up for Cas’ sacrifice to keep him alive. And thinking of Cas, Jack could see the grief like a thick black fog curling around Dean’s heart. He wanted to ask Jack to bring Cas back. Jack could see it all written clear as day across his soul, his heart and threaded through his scattered thoughts. But Dean didn’t think he had the right to ask. He didn’t feel _worthy_ of the angel who had given up everything, time and time again to keep this hunter safe. Jack had every faith that Sam would look after Dean, with one smile filled with as much love he could convey in a human body, he turned away to leave.  
  
He had work to do.

****

Jack’s first stop was to Heaven. He could see how there still weren’t enough angels to keep it running smoothly, no matter how many additional angels he’d made the last time he had visited. He ventured down to Heaven’s prison which he had only heard of before and found Bobby in the cells. He knew this was a different Bobby but he still felt the affection he had seen in Sam and Dean for this man who had in most respects been their father.  
  
“Come on Bobby,” he pulled open the door of the cell. “You should not be in here.”  
  
Bobby looked uncertain as he rose from the bench and came towards him. Looks like you could never take that hunters instinct away.  
  
“Do I know you kid?” Bobby’s voice was just as gruff as his alternate counterpart. Jack raised his hand in a familiar way.  
  
“I’m Jack.” he said. “Sam and Dean looked after me, we took down God together.” Bobby’s eyebrows raised in shock at that.  
  
“What’re those idjits getting up to now?” Jack could see Bobby’s hesitance, tinging his aura green as he looked at him.  
  
“I’ve come to help,” Jack tried to reassure him. “I have a job to do.” He opened the other cell, where Naomi was being kept. “I need you to keep Heaven running while I fix it.”  
  
“You’re going to fix Heaven? How?” Naomi looked just as wary as Bobby had.  
  
“Chuck had it all wrong.” Jack explained. “Living through all your good memories on repeat? That’s not Heaven. What about those who have no good memories? Families being kept apart? How is that Heaven?”  
  
“You’re alright kid,” Bobby’s aura had less of that tinge to it now. He was coming around. Jack smiled at that.  
  
“What do you need me to do?” Naomi turned to him, all business now. He could see she was eager to help him with whatever he was planning.  
  
“I just need you and the other angels to stop Heaven breaking down for now,” he explained. “I’m going to get some help.”

****

When Jack thought of the Empty, he remembered it’s parting words to him. _You made it loud._ But it was safe to say he had never imagined **this**.  
  
“For the love of all that is… shut up! Just stop making so much **noise**!” The Empty, still wearing the face Jack recognised from before, was sat in the same chair with it’s head in it’s hands. And well, the noise was near deafening. Jack could see three distinct characters behind the chair. His eyes snapped straight to Castiel who was, playing a trumpet?  
  
“Castiel? Is that a trumpet?” He gasped out in shock. A feeling of warmth spreading through him as he looked at the man he considered his father.  
  
“Jack!” two voices called out, Jack slid his eyes to the other figure.  
  
“Uncle Gabe?” he caught the shine of something in Gabriel’s hand. “What is that?” Gabriel held it up with a grin.  
  
“It’s my Kazoo,” he winked at Jack. “We’ve been playing some _wonderful_ music for the Empty but it doesn’t seem to appreciate our talents.”  
  
“You have no talent.” The Empty growled from where it was bent over in the chair.  
  
“Bitch please, we’re Heaven’s answer to the backstreet boys.” Gabriel answered with his usual flair.  
  
“Oh please, we have better taste.” the third angel cut in. Jack didn’t recognise this one.  
  
“I do not understand that reference. Gabriel, Balthazar.” Castiel had lowered his trumpet to look at his brothers.  
  
“What are you doing?” Jack had to ask.  
  
“They’re keeping me awake,” The Empty grumbled. “And they’re being noisy about it.”  
  
“Damn right we’re being noisy!” the third angel, Balthazar, interrupted clanging on – was that a triangle?  
  
“We can get **_louder!_** ” Gabriel added before blowing noisily on his kazoo once again. Jack couldn’t help but laugh at their silliness, this would work to his advantage.  
  
“I can take them.” He looked to the Empty now, acting like he was doing it a favour. “All the noisy ones, I can take them.”  
  
“You have no power here _God_. And there’s some you wouldn’t want to take.” It narrowed its eyes at him. “How does this benefit me?”  
  
“I can send everything else back to sleep. But you have to let me take them.” Jack bargained. He could see the Empty thinking through what he said. “They’ll never bother you again, you can sleep forever.” He added. The Empty reclined in the chair.  
  
“Fine. But make it quick.” it demanded.

****

The four of them travelled through the vast space of the empty, finding more and more angels, good angels who wanted to return to Heaven with them. A few elected to stay in the empty and allow Jack to return them to a state of sleep. Only one came as a shock.  
  
“Raph?” Gabriel asked. “Are you sure?”  
  
“I’m tired Gabriel.” Raphael replied. “I’ve seen so much fighting, so much death. A lot of it at my hands. I know it might be different now, I can see the kid has good intentions, but I’m too old and too stuck in the old ways to truly change. You have always been adaptable brother. I am done.”  
  
Jack had some words of warning when they finally found Michael. “Adam is back on Earth, living his life Michael, and I won’t let you mess with that. If you’re coming back you’re coming to Heaven and I don’t want anyone returning to Earth. Chuck interfered with what was going on down there too much, they’ve never truly been able to experience free will. We’re staying out of it this time. I do have a job for you in Heaven if you want it.”  
  
“I’d like to come back, if you’ll let me.” Michael answered solemnly. “And if you’ll accept my apology for the part I played in Chuck’s plan.” Jack smiled and shrugged a shoulder.  
  
“We’ve all done stupid things for our Dads Michael,” he said indulgently.  
  
“Ain’t that the truth,” the voice behind them had them all spinning around. Had Cas standing in front of Jack protectively albeit unnecessarily.  
  
“Lucifer.”  
  
“Are you going to leave me here?” In that moment Lucifer looked uncharacteristically small, as though he couldn’t think of anything worse than being left in that vast dark space, and like he genuinely believed they were going to condemn him to an eternity of it. Jack couldn’t do that, even to him, not when he knew he could fix it.  
  
“No, I have a job for you too.” Jack stepped forward and closed his eyes, just as he had on Earth to bring all the humans back, earning a few odd looks from those around him.  
  
“What did you do Jack?” Castiel was the one to ask.  
  
“I took away the darkness that’s been poisoning his grace ever since Chuck gave him the mark.” Jack explained. “You’re free. To come back to Heaven with us. But I’ll warn you like I did Michael, you mustn’t go to Earth and start messing with humans.” Lucifer looked bewildered.  
  
“Thank you.”

****

When they returned to Heaven the difference was noticeable immediately. With three more Archangels and dozens of angels they were back running at full power. But this was only stage one of Jack’s plan.  
  
“You want to _change Heaven_?” Michael was aghast. “Why?”  
  
“Because this isn’t the eternal paradise that these people deserve.” Jack explained. “Living through your memories in some sort of time loop? Not good enough.”  
  
“What do you wanna do kiddo?” Gabriel looked ready, Castiel too. Jack knew he was doing the right thing here.  
  
“I want to start again.”

****

The thing about angels is, they’re powerful, and _incredibly_ fast. And when you have three Archangels in the mix it just speeds everything up tenfold. Within days they had torn down the walls between all of the old ‘personal heavens’ and started to build a new Heaven. They worked together to create a space large enough to house every single soul sent their way. Castiel helped to design all of the natural world, and he took his job seriously, taking his time to perfect every single mountain, every tree, every body of water. Gabriel was the one who pointed out they needed more than just houses for the humans.  
  
“They’re _human_.” He said impatiently to the rest of them who clearly didn’t get it. “They need entertainment, and shops, and bars. You know, stuff so they don’t get bored.” It fell to him and Balthazar to fill Heaven with all the fun the rest of them seemed to be struggling with. Balthazar volunteered himself to stop ‘that awful song ever seeing the light of day’ in Heaven. So Gabriel made sure the song followed him _everywhere he went_. When they were done, they made sure that the humans could bring their own happiness with them. Any memories or places they had loved in life they could will into being with the magic of Heaven. Jack had one more job to do now that he’d changed everything. He went to see Bobby.  
  
“When Dean gets here,” he said. “Can you explain this all to him?”  
  
“What do you mean?” Bobby asked.  
  
“He’ll remember how Heaven used to be, and he’ll think it’s a memory. Can you explain it to him?”  
  
“Why me kid?” he didn’t fully understand.  
  
“He saw you as his Dad Bobby,” Jack explained with that little smile that looked like he knew more than he was telling. “You’ve explained most of the important events in his life to him. It’s only right you’re the one to greet him here, this one last explanation should be yours too.” Bobby went slightly misty eyed at that. Jack simply clamped his hand on his shoulder, something he’d learned from Dean as an acceptable way of providing comfort to grouchy hunters.

****

“Hey Cassie,” Castiel looked up to see Gabriel wandering over to him.  
  
“Gabriel? What are you doing here?” he asked.  
  
“Can’t I visit my favourite little brother once in a while?”  
  
“You can, but I thought you’d be busy?”  
  
“Never too busy for you Cassie,” Gabriel grinned. “Have you been down to see him yet?”  
  
Castiel shook his head. “Jack doesn’t want us to go down there.”  
  
“I’m sure he’d make an exception for you.”  
  
“I died so he could live Gabriel. I intend to let him do so without any interference. I’ll see him when he gets here.”  
  
“As long as you’re not just hiding up here. I must admit I was a bit thrown when you had to check every individual bee for how fuzzy it was. But then I remembered you always were a perfectionist, even as a bossy little fledgeling.” Gabriel’s voice always had this hint of teasing that Castiel never fully grasped, but still loved to hear it. Almost as much as he loved seeing his brother back in Heaven in all his new and former glory.  
  
“I _like_ my job.” Castiel snarked, and wasn’t that a sign he’d spent too much time with the Winchesters. “Almost as much as I like seeing you in yours. It suits you brother.” Castiel could see Gabriel’s wings ruffle with pride even as a blush stained his cheeks. “Do you know why Jack left you in charge yet? Have you worked it out?”  
  
“No,” Gabriel barked out a laugh. “I have no idea what the kid was thinking.” Cas shook his head fondly.  
  
“Because you’re the one with their best interests in mind.” He explained. “You _get_ humans Gabriel. You lived with them, you learned about them and you _understand_ them. When it came down to it you were the one in their corner. Who else could be trusted to keep this high a standard of our new paradise? Michael? _Lucifer?_ ”  
  
“See, I knew bossy little Castiel was still in there,” He teased, with unabashed fondness.  
  
“I was a garrison leader. I led armies Gabriel.”  
  
“Bossy little Cassiepants.” Gabriel ruffled his hair with a grin.  
  
“Castiel!” the new voice had them both turning to see where Balthazar had appeared at the edge of the field. He was smiling. “He’s here.”

****

Dean had a small smile on his face as he climbed into baby and turned the key in the ignition. It had been sat there ever since Bobby had told him that Cas had helped to fix Heaven. Hearing that his angel (and Cas was _his_ angel, had been ever since he’d dragged Dean’s battered and tortured soul up from the pit) wasn’t stuck in an infinite darkness that he had no idea how to break into and pull him out of. Yeah, he’d told Sam they had to ‘respect’ Cas’ sacrifice, but honestly if he’d had the first idea how to reach him there he would have torn it all apart to find him. Now, he just had to find him here in Heaven. At that thought the smile grew even larger on his face. If he knew his angel, he wouldn’t have to go find him. Just as the thought entered his head, the faint ruffle of wings proved him exactly right.  
  
“Hello Dean.” And damn he’d missed that gravelly tone. He glanced over and gave Cas the biggest grin he could, even as he felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes.  
  
“Hey Cas,” the emotion in his throat making his voice slightly hoarser than he was expecting. Trying to calm his nerves, Dean leaned over and interlocked their fingers with barely a thought. All he knew was that Cas was _here_ , and he was determined to keep him here with him.  
  
“Dean…” Cas started only to be immediately silenced by Dean.  
  
“Uh huh buddy” Dean laughed. “You had your turn now it’s my go.” He looked at Cas as though he were drinking in his very presence. “I’ve had a long time to think about what I wanna say to you and you’re gonna let me say it all, ‘kay? I’m sorry I didn’t say this sooner. I’m sorry it took losing you for me to pull my head out of my ass and realise what was there. Ever since you ‘gripped me tight and raised me from perdition’ you changed me too Cas. You made me believe I was worth something more than being a blunt instrument. And it might have taken years for that to sink in. But the worst thing about watching you die **_again_** was the fact you died thinking I didn’t love you. That you could never have what you wanted. That _I_ was what you wanted and you didn’t think I wanted you too. So if it takes me every single damn day between now and forever, I am going to make you see just how much I love you Castiel.”  
  
“Dean,” Castiel had the smallest little smile on his face but to Dean it was near blinding with the love he could see in his eyes. “Pull over.” Dean was nervous now as he slowed the impala and pulled to the side of this seemingly never-ending road. Turned out he had no reason to be anxious because as soon as he’d turned the engine off he found himself with a lapful of angel holding his face and peppering kisses all over his face. He slid one hand round the back of Castiel’s head and guided his mouth down to his whilst his other hand curled round his hip. The moment their lips met Dean knew now what people meant when they said they saw fireworks. It felt like every nerve was conscious of each point their bodies touched. Like sensory overload and he never wanted it to end. For the first time in Dean Winchester’s life (and wasn’t it ironic he was feeling it in death), he felt like he was home, here with his angel in Heaven.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone was wondering because I couldn't find a good place to put in the story, Michael and Lucifer have been left in charge of the new fledglings in Heaven. That way Michael can teach them the importance of following rules but Lucifer can give them enough independence to tell the difference between important rules and bullshit orders.


End file.
